Elie Luzac - L’homme plus que Machine - 1755

Luzac, Élie. — The Man More Than Machine (Göttingen, 1755).
Göttingen: At the Author's, 1755.
12mo. Full red morocco of the period, gilt-tooled spine, gilt edges.

Rare and important second edition of this classic work of Enlightenment philosophical polemic. Élie Luzac, settled in Holland, took up the pen to oppose the reductionist theses of La Mettrie, according to which man would be only a complex assembly of mechanical springs.

While acknowledging the subtlety of physiology, Luzac argues in this work that consciousness, thought, and morality involve a spiritual substance irreducible to mere matter — hence the provocative title The Man More Than Machine.

Magnificent copy preserved in its original full red morocco binding. The leather shows a beautiful old patina, with light wear to the tips and joints, but the whole remains with remarkable elegance. Interior clean on wove paper, containing old damp-stains, without any alteration to the text.

Although bearing the false address of “Göttingen, at the Author's” on its title page, this book was in fact distributed through clandestine Protestant networks and scholarly circles of Northern Europe, concerned to counter rampant materialist atheism.

Very rare copy in a sumptuous full morocco binding.